Man who escaped from Oregon State Hospital suffered from delusions in fatal car crash

A 21-year-old psychiatric patient from the Oregon State Hospital was reported on unauthorized leave Saturday.

The patient, Matthew Ingle, should not be approached, according to Rebeka Gipson-King, hospital spokeswoman. Instead, anyone seeing the patient should call Oregon State Police at 1-800-452-7888.

At the time of his disappearance, Ingle was on a supervised walk with patients and staff at the Salem campus. He ran ahead of the group and jumped into a waiting car. Staff reported him missing at approximately 9:30 a.m.

Hospital officials, who reported the escape to state and local police agencies, described Ingle as 5-feet, 11-inches tall, 182 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. When last seen, he was wearing blue jeans, a dark shirt, and a white hat.

Ingle was admitted to the Oregon State Hospital on Nov. 1, 2009, as a forensic commitment on a conviction of two counts of second-degree manslaughter involving an incident of intoxicated driving in Clackamas County.

According to a 2009 article in The Oregonian, Ingle was in the grip of

schizophrenic delusions when he blew through a red light on U.S. 26 west of Sandy and slammed into a car driven by Pamela L. Benson.

Ingle thought aliens or possibly the "Holy Spirit" controlled his 1987 Toyota 4Runner. Both Benson and her 11-year-old daughter, Clarice, were killed.

Staff Writer Steve Mayes wrote that it “the tragic intersection of two innocent people and a teenager who knew he was losing touch with reality.”

On the day of the crash, Ingle had taken prescription anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs. After the collision, Ingle told an investigator that a spaceship might have "locked on" to his steering wheel. A friend told investigators that Ingle took an antacid to give him "white light" that would ward off the devil.

Such thoughts prompted Ingle to check himself into psychiatric hospitals, spending 21 days as a patient in the four weeks before the crash.